Mabin and Meredith also picked up wickets on debut, while veteran Mark Fraser made a rare return to the bowling crease at representative level and got a wicket in his first over.
Jared van Deventer, Wairarapa's leading run-scorer last season, survived an early dropped catch to post 160 from 244 balls to anchor his team.
His dismissal at 277-6 opened up the possibility Whanganui could secure a bowling bonus point.
However, Nathan Elliott (42 not out) and Roshan Sugathan (16no) saw their side safely over the 300 mark for no further loss, and then Rance stepped up to take centre stage.
Nick Harding, Ross Kinnerley and Matt Simes were all out with no score.
Smith and Fraser (both 27) dug in, with Whanganui getting a reprieve due to wet weather early on Sunday afternoon, but when play resumed at 2.30pm, Rance continued the charge.
With Whanganui eight down, Sugathan stepped in to remove Clough (12) who had begun to settle in.
The only other lower-order resistance came from Fraser Kinnerley (24), but he fell to Rance to have Whanganui out before 5pm.
"It's our first bat on grass, our first bat of the season, and we come against a professional athlete – a professional cricketer who gets paid to bowl," coach Warren Marr said.
"If we'd played them later in the season, I believe we would have been better.
"[Rance] bowled full, full, bouncer, then boom – he'd trap you in front, nick you off. He's just skilful and he was too quick for us as well."
Marr was pleased with the efforts of Mabin and Meredith, a Whanganui High School student who was a late inclusion with Hawke's Bay import Liam Hall unavailable.
"I thought they were outstanding for young guys in their debut.
"We bowled pretty well to our plans, in patches. We dropped one catch, which was costly."
Captain Smith knew his amateurs and schoolboys were always going to struggle against a player with One-Day and T20 experience for New Zealand.
"Whenever I've been back in the UK, I've mentioned to friends back home, 'you wouldn't see it elsewhere', NZ's quite unique in that sense.
"It's a great challenge but today, having not had a hit on grass yet, it was a bit of a baptism of fire to go out there and face Rance, who bowled well.
"Our boys were a bit undercooked, and we knew that coming into the fixture, not having enough training sessions under our belt and enough chances to play on grass."
Scoreboard
Wairarapa 1st Innings
C Freeman ct fielder b R Clough 17
R Anderson lbw R Clough 13
J van Deventer b C Meredith 160
J Forrester ct S Roebuck b M Fraser 39
J Vorster ct C Sharrock b Oscar Mabin 10
S Rance run out N Harding 0
N Elliott not out 42
R Sugathan not out 16
Extras: 9
Total: 306-6 dec (91 overs).
Bowling: O Mabin 17 overs, 3 maidens, 55 runs, 1 wicket; F Kinnerley 16-7-0-29; R Clough 16-2-74-2; C Meredith 16-4-44-1; H Binning 9-1-0-32; N Harding 8-1-0-22; G Smith 5-1-24-0; M Fraser 4-0-17-1.
Whanganui 1st Innings
N Harding ct C Freeman b S Rance 0
R Kinnerley ct N Elliott b S Rance 0
M Simes lbw S Rance 0
G Smith ct N Elliott b S Rance 27
M Fraser method unknown b Rance 27
C Sharrock ct Jared van Deventer b S Rance 2
O Mabin b S Rance 0
F Kinnerley ct C Freeman b S Rance 24
S Roebuck b S Rance 2
R Clough ct N Elliott b R Sugathan 12
C Meredith not out 3
Extras: 1
Total: 98 (46.3 overs).
Bowling: S Rance 11.3-2-26-9; Angus Jaspers 11-6-20-0; J Vorster 3.5-1-12-0; T Bidois 1-0-2-0; P Sigvertsen 8.1-1-18-0; S Payne 6-3-11-0; R Sugathan 5-2-8-0.
Result: Draw, Wairarapa win 1st innings points.
Club cricket
The Cricket Whanganui club season got underway on the artificial wickets at Springvale Park on Saturday.
The Rep Weekend T20 competition will consist of teams split into two pools, with the Top 2 from each pool meeting in the semifinals, with these matches played on the representative weekends.
The Wicket Warriors Whanganui drew first blood with a 10-run win over Property Brokers United 2nd XI.
Whanganui Renegades, who won all the Premier 2 trophies last season and will step up in the first half of this summer to Premier 1, got a comfortable 49-run win over Marist Premier 2.
Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens got a forfeit win over an undermanned Wanganui United 3rd XI.
